The field of the disclosure relates to apparatus for use in treating arterial or vascular disease. More particularly, the disclosure relates to a modular stent assembly for the treatment at the intersection of one or more arterial or vascular passages, with various embodiments of the present invention pertaining to the assembly of multiple stents and modular stents.
Various methods are available for the treatment of arterial diseases such as aneurysms located within the thoracic and abdominal aorta. While invasive surgeries may be carried out to directly treat the aneurysm, other non-invasive techniques may be used. For example, an endovascular stent may be deployed in the lumen near the location of the aneurysm through endoscopic surgery or another suitable technique. Stents are normally delivered into the lumen to be treated in a collapsed state with a diameter or crossing profile that is smaller than the diameter of the lumen. The stent grafts are then expanded with an expanding member, such as a balloon catheter, or are released from a constrained configuration and self-expanded by nature of their construction.
While a number of types of endovascular stents have been conceived, there is still a need for new and improved designs. In one aspect, there is a need for a stent or stent assembly that can be deployed at the intersection of one or more arterial passages. In another aspect, there is a need for a set of modular stents that may be adjusted or assembled in myriad ways to accommodate various geometries and angles within an arterial space.